Or, Hope Is Standing Right in Front of You
Scripture: John 20:11-18
Date: July 27, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
We are still early in the morning on the first day of the week. The Romans crucified Jesus on Friday, the day after the Passover meal, the beginning of the weeklong Passover festival in Jerusalem. The few followers of Jesus are defeated; Saturday’s silence leaves us to imagine the depth of the disciples’ sorrow. Mary Magdalene and some other women came to the tomb early on Sunday but found the door open (John 20:1). Not one of them expected this.
Mary ran to tell Peter and John who ran back to the grave site (verse 2). Peter entered and saw the grave clothes lying on the slab where the body should have been, with the head-wrapping folded neatly not far away (verses 6-7). Neither one expected this.
John “believed” when he saw that Jesus was gone (verse 8). He could have believed before he had gone into the tomb. As the disciples later understood, Scripture promised that the Messiah, the King of David, could not stay dead (verse 9). For the time, all they had to go on was a missing body.
Mary is still disturbed by it. Why wouldn’t she be? It unsettled her that Jesus was dead, it unsettled her more not to know where His body was. She went back to the tomb and started crying.
Mary interacts in three scenes in John 20:11-18. In two of them she is crying and is asked about it: “Why are you weeping?” In the final scene, her weeping is done. John uses a lot of space to relate this part of the story and we’ll see that what made the difference was standing right in front of her.
The suddenness and unexpectedness of the last three days landed on Mary and came out in grief.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” (John 20:11–13)
Peter and John came to the tomb and then went back to their homes (verse 10). John does not tell us if they passed Mary on their way into town as she was on her way back out to the tomb. It seems that she is alone, and she stood weeping outside the tomb . Weeping is a specific word that describes anguished wailing or sobbing, used in John’s gospel only in funeral scenes or discussion of death (Borchert).
Unlike her first visit, this time she looked in. As she wept she stooped to look in and unlike Peter and John, it wasn’t grave clothes that caught her eye. She saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet . The other gospel writers only mention one angel, probably because only one spoke. White was a color associated with heaven, but they appear to be in a form more human that did not startle Mary. They seem to be sitting, waiting for Mary (Lenski, 1350).
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” On first read, this seems sympathetic. They are attentive to what is making her so sad. But, these two characters were in a grave. The empty grave clothes were between them. How obtuse is that question if it is only seeking information?
The question, while a warm one, is an opportunity for Mary to think about what was happening. Why was she weeping? Some commentators call this a mild rebuke. The angels must have known more than nothing. They were asking for her benefit, not their own.
She didn’t understand. She was still thinking like she had been. She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
John mentions the angels no more. They were there as witnesses and perhaps to prepare Mary for what happened next.
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:14–17)
What provoked her to turn around? Did the angels bow? Did she hear a noise? John doesn’t say. But she didn’t immediately see what she saw.
She turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus . Some think that her tears blurred her vision. Not likely. Grief mixed with unbelief kept her from seeing clearly.
Jesus asked her two questions, one of which is exactly the same as the angels. “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Even the whom rather than what suggests that the person, not the body, is significant. Are not both answers standing right in front of her? She has found the one she was seeking and, therefore, she has no more reason for weeping! Jesus is patiently drawing her out of confusion.
She still didn’t see. Supposing him to be the gardener . What a misidentification! To her eyes, the resurrected Jesus must not have appeared so strange. Of course, she hadn’t really reacted to the angels either. He was clothed, with something, and she figured that maybe as the caretaker of the garden he had moved or knew who moved the body. She says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.” She is persistent, if not overconfident. She couldn’t carry Him by herself. And did she have a new tomb ready?
It doesn’t matter because one word from Jesus blows away all the blur. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher) .
Maybe no story better illustrates the call of the Good Shepherd. “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3). Mary had all the physical evidence in the world right in front of her. There is no more material proof available. The tomb door: open, the tomb itself: empty, the grave clothes: unoccupied, the heavenly angels: waiting, and the resurrected Jesus: standing right in front of her talking to her. But physical evidence is not enough apart from the shepherd’s call. His call is effective.
She must have looked away, scanning in different directions as if wondering where Jesus’ body might be. But when she heard Him call her name, she knew it was Him. “Rabonni!” is not only the word for Teacher or Master, it is in a personal, more intimate form.
She also must have fallen on Him, perhaps grabbing and clutching His feet. So He said, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” What does this mean?
It does not mean that He doesn’t want her to touch Him. He tells Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put our your hand, and place it in my ribs” (John 20:27). The bodily resurrection of Jesus is crucial for the gospel and our future bodily resurrections. He did not defeat death as a ghost or come back from the dead as a ghost.
It also doesn’t fit that He ascended twice. He did not ascend between His appearance to Mary on Sunday morning and His appearance to Thomas eight days later. He did not ascend, descend, then ascend again in front of them all on the Mt. Olivet to make it more official. So again, what does it mean?
That Mary was rejoicing to see Him risen from the dead was great. That Mary expected everything to return to how it had been before He died was not. Things had changed. Jesus had forty or so days of work on earth but that was it. Then He would ascend to His Father as He had told His disciples multiple times, and then He would send the Spirit.
The word cling (ESV) and the context argue for this interpretation. “Cling” is more grabbing, clenching, hanging than a simple touch or tap. She wasn’t just touching Him to see if He was alive, she was holding onto Him as if to say she would never let Him go again. Jesus said, “Don’t hold on to me” (Borchert).
He gave her an assignment. “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.‘” He both differentiates Himself from them and associates Himself with them. He is the eternal Son; disciples are adopted sons. We are not God, but He brings us to share Trinitarian fellowship. Disciples are His brothers, as Psalm 22:22 signaled.
She knew where most of them were gathered.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. (John 20:18)
It must have been humbling to be one of the eleven and not have Jesus appear to you first, let alone to have the first appearance be to a woman. But probably they were more shocked by her message than the messenger.
She said, “I have seen the Lord—” English translations would be served by an exclamation point here (The NIV and the Holman Christian Standard Bible have one, even The Message - “I saw the Master!”). Bunyan’s semicolon after Christian’s remembrance in Giant Despair’s dungeon is a gross oversight. This probably is no less. She was not saying that she found where the “they” had put His body. She saw Him! Alive!
She also shared that he said these things to her , the things about ascending and the Fatherhood of God. They wouldn’t see Jesus with their own eyes until later that night, which we’ll see in the next paragraph.
A few things stand out.
First, Jesus is risen! I love how the angels put it in Matthew’s account: “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6). Our Lord is the Lord of life. He could not stay dead.
Second, a few religions claim to have a resurrected prophet or leader. None, however, have a resurrection story with so many proofs, so many witnesses, so many opportunities for refutation that survive the denials. That said, physical proofs and arguments cannot do what the Word of the Lord does. He must speak. He must call. He must open eyes or we will not hear or see. Apologetics is a ripe field, by itself there is enough evidence for the resurrection that demands a verdict, but only God Himself can help a man see.
Finally, why are you weeping?
Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.
Are you frustrated at what He has assigned you? Are you envious of another’s place? Are you bitter that it is so late in your life? But He is Lord. He has brought you to His Father. Your Father. Will you grumble at His gracious glory? Will you weep about your lot when hope is standing right in front of you? This isn’t to say that we have no reasons at all for sadness. But even those must be seen from the perspective of our risen Lord.